Getting Back To My "Roots"

When I started this it was meant to be a blog about My Beer Adventures and Homebrewing. While I do take note of pretty much all of my adventures; i.e. GABF, Beer At The Movies, and Almost Every Brewery Visit, there are some that I missed and this has morphed into more of a beer review blog. That is not what I wanted at all. I feel my old format was more fun and this one is becoming a bit,... routine.

I still plan to review Special Beers, anything from New Belgium, and since picking up the 1001 Beers book, that is now another part of my journey. I want to do more Side by Sides. Those are fun. I will have to figure out beers to use though. Maybe I will do some more BMC vs Craft or Clone Brews vs The Original. And of course any Random Rant that I feel to post. So here we go trying to get things back together.



In order to do that, I went out and bought a couple of Whiskey Barrels! Two Jack Daniel Half Barrels to be exact!I figured they would be the perfect planter to grow some hops! At first, I thought they were totally impractical but after looking around at the rest of the selection I found that the only comparable sized planter that I would have bought was only $10 less. It is always nice to save money but I really did not want to look at a plastic green planter in my yard everyday. These barrels are so me... Even though I do not like Jack.

I ordered Chinook and Cluster rhizomes being they are two of three key ingredients in one of my IPAs. The other being Cascade. I really want like 6 or 7 different varieties. Maybe I should go over this list and make it more practical but what can be bad about having multiple plants in my yard?

The first step to growing hops in these pots is to fill them with dirt. Crazy right?!?! But the pots do need drainage holes so I slapped a few into the bottom of each. I even made sure to coordinate my drill with my outfit. Check that out!



One thing that confused me is that the reccommendation that came from the supplier suggested planting them vertically but all of the books I own say to plant them horizontally. Hmm... What do I do?

I decided to plant one Vertically and one Horizontally! They sent me two of each. What is the worst that can happen? The bigger of the two I did horizontally and the smaller, the other. I don't think I will be able to see any notable difference without digging the two up based on their proximity but yeah. It is done.



I cannot wait for the first sprouts to break ground and I will be posting pictures of that and when I get my trellis set up. I think at first I am just going to use a tomato trellis and then maybe some string to let it run up the side of my place, but we will see. I am hoping it is not too long. It's getting pretty warm here and others have already reported growth. One of the coolest things I think about my planters, are that they are Westley Approved.



Cheers!